With the recent relaunch of Capcom-Unity, in all of its legit social-network glory, we got a chance to sit down with one of the community team members of Capcom, Seth Killian. As expected, he’s a total badass when it comes to Street Fighter, and an equal badass when it comes to serving the Capcom community

So, intrigued with the new design, including Facebook-esque depth, complete with image uploading, blogging and friends lists, we hounded the ever-busy dude to pull away from the keyboard/joystick to answer a few questions about the future of the social networking site, how they feel it will affect the industry, and a couple other tidbits of Capcom goodies.

Check out Killian’s killer interview:

We’ll get the simple stuff out of the way: give us a
debrief on who you are, exactly, and what you do for Capcom.

I’m Seth Killian. Mr role in these parts would be “Senior Manager, Community.” I get up to a lot of other internal shenanigans as well, mostly fighting-game related, but that’s another life.

The new Capcom-Unity just launched, and it looks really awesome. It’s almost as in-depth as a MySpace or Facebook.Who decided that Capcom was going to be the place to be for gamers, and why?

Mostly Capcom just got a lot cooler in the past few years, and have made a big push to engage and empower their fans. One part of that was hiring me–I’m a huge and lifelong Capcom fan (particularly Street Fighter, which I’ve traveled around the world to play).

We know we’re not Facebook, but we’ve tried to borrow a few of their fun parts while keeping a distinctly Capcom flavor, adding some bonuses (like our point system–wait to see what we do with that!), and empowering our users to share Capcom-related awesomeness with one another.

The response has been–literally–overwhelming. I really can’t keep up with all the solid gold the community has been churning out with only a few days after playing with some of our new tools…

On the official PlayStation Blog Jeff Rubenstein has posted a video explaining what exactly the PS3 Trophies are. This has been a long rumoured feature that was said to duplicate the XBOX360 achievements, but watch the video below to see for yourself.

What do you guys think? I’m a huge achievement fan on the 360, so the fact that the two systems are very similar is a good thing for me. I can also imagine that developers will have an easy time porting Trophies to Achievements and vice versa.

At launch only Super Stardust HD will support the new Trophy system, but it’s said that it would be an easy system to patch into existing games. Other games said to support Trophies are:

BUZZ! Quiz TV

LittleBigPlanet

MotorStorm Pacific Rift

NBA 09 – PS3

PAIN

PixelJunk Eden

Resistance 2

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation

Warhawk

Looks like a good collection of titles, and I’m sure it will increase from there. It’s almost hard to believe that the PS3 is all growds’up now having both in-game XMB and Trophies! Do you think this will do anything to quell the shouts from the neysayers?

Sony has announced that the much-anticipated PS3 firmware update 2.40 will be coming on Wednesday July 2nd. This news comes after rumours that the update wouldn’t hit until around E3, but the earlier the better. A recent video posted on the Playstation Blog earlier today revealed that in game XMB was finally coming to PS3, with Sony answering the pleads of many owners. This will allow users to access the Cross Media bar in the middle of a game, the video showing that the game will not pause while you check your messages and the like. This will make talking to people a whole lot easier on the PS3, and makes 2.40 the best update the console has got in ages.

In addition to the in game XMB, trophies-Sony’s version of achievements-will arrive as well, along with changes to the friends system, including an expansion of maximum friends from 50 to 100.Both of these features were shown in an even more recent video on the Playstation blog. The trophies in particular will add a competitive edge to non-competitive games, with Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum trophies dished out for achievements worthy of praise. These may have come late in the PS3’s life, nearly 2 years after launch, but on Wednesday, the most wanted addition to the console’s hardware will be here. Make sure that your sitting there on Wednesday morning to download it straight away.

It was inevitable that this news would come sooner or later, but today is the day when EA officially announce a sequel to their hugely successful music game that we expected, and hoped, would come later. The sequel is to be released in September of this year, exclusively for the Xbox 360.

While the game offers backwards compatable DLC with all current and future Rock Band tunes. Harmonix boasts the biggest, and most diverse tracklist ever, as well as redesigned instruments to compliment its probably-too-expensive-for-only-being-a-year-later sequel. Look for Rock Band details around the E3 Summit in July, and check out full details on the questionable sequel below.

In a turn for the casual, EA recently announced their new All-Play initiative. Taking a stab at a more casual take on their popular sports games, the All-Play editions of the games will feature, as far as we can tell, pretty robust basic-gameplay modes, on top of a bunch of mini-games that actually look fun.

We aren’t quite sure whether you can lead the Packers to the Bowl, or earn Tiger a green jacket, but at the very least, you can expect simple, accessible gameplay from the bunch of titles, all set to release day and date with their other-console counterparts. You can check out EA’s official All-Play website for videos the games, each page detailing the specifics of the Wii-exclusive editions.

It looks like sports are finally being done right. We’re surprised at how genuinely awesome they look, especially if there are full-blown careers in them on top of the mini-games. Casual gaming is stronger than ever, apparently, and EA’s push isn’t going to slow it down anytime soon.

Expect to hear more about the All-Star lineup in the future, because we’re stoked for NCAA based exclusively on mascot vs. mascot matches! For more details, check out our info after the jump. You can expect these games this fall for around 50 bucks a pop.

After six minutes and three seconds, we’ve completed SoulCalibur yet again. The pencil-drawn endings, capped off with entering a trio of letters to initial our victory, are nostalgic enough, but the six glorious minutes of massacre a la Mitsurigi that took place prior has us in high-five mode.

With SoulCalibur IV coming in a mere month, we were sceptical as to how relevant a decade old fighter could possibly be, but after relishing in Kilik’s notorious cheap-ass-ery, Nightmare’s gigantic sword and devastating power, and the stupendous existence of oneLizard Man, we were convinced that no matter how great the upcoming Namco fighter looks, the roots will always remain relevant; even if Taki and Ivy are still despicably offensive.

After almost ten years, the sequel to Soul Edge is as tight and responsive as we expect any modern AAA fighter to be, and with the increase in resolution and smoothed out textures, we were amazed at how slick the classic looked in comparison to other recent titles. From the lighting to the fluid fighting animation, SoulCalibur has never looked so good – though we wish to death that it was widescreen, and not marred with vertical borders – and it’s baffling that the title is being released as a download for Xbox Live Arcade when you take in to consideration the amount of available gameplay.

Various single player and multiplayer modes await players – including timed bouts and up to 16-character team battles – who long for The Good Ol’ Days, or, if the latest iteration of SoulCalibur and its intergalactic cast do not quite catch your fancy, this re-release will knock your socks off when it hits digital shelves on July 2. Without Xbox Live integration, however, it will be a tough sell to fans who want to kick it with their online buddies. Still, this is going to be some of the most multiplayer fun you will have on your couch all year.

Blizzard, after much speculation, finally confirmed Diablo III at their Worldwide Invitational event in Paris today. The last week or so saw an evolving splash page at Blizzard.com, as it changed from a solid surface to an icy-donut, prominently featuring glowing runes surrounding ominous glowing eyes.

The resulting revelation was a fiery face. Fantastic.

The game will utilize an isometric perspective, much like its predecessor, but has seen a Starcraft II-like facelift, according to freelancer Thierry Nguyen on his 1up Liveblog. In the demo shown at the event, the class of “witch doctor” was unveiled, as was an improved combat system, including smashing through, and crushing enemies with, walls. Badass.

The official Diablo 3website is currently up, and filled with tons of awesome media, including a really great video of gameplay that shows off female variations of each of the revealed classes, a big-ass boss fight, and loads more. Be sure to check it, and our gallery out.

Coming in tandem with the “next-gen” version of the re-invigoration of Prince of Persia this holiday season, Ubisoft revealed a Nintendo DS incarnation of the upcoming platformer titled The Fallen King. The handheld title, however, will not be a cel-shaded 3D wall-crawler, but a 2D old-school PoP style game that’s centered around the stylus.

When you’re not beating enemies senseless or backflipping off ledges, players will take control of a mysteriously magical monster known as “Magus”, a story-centric character who may or may not be an ally of the prince. There are apparently 50 “maps” in the game to platform around, and assuming these are levels, we’re either in for one hell of a long game, or a game that’s got some rad portability. The stylus controls will have players “master[ing] the acrobatics, strategy and fighting tactics of the most agile warrior of all time.”

Strategy huh? Well, we aren’t keen on the new art style when comparing it to the console/PC version, but we’re anxious to see what direction this goofy lookin’ thing is taking if it’s claiming strategy and acrobatics on the stylus.

It seems the anime-styled game will have a little diversity. There’s little other info, but when Ubisoft unveils more – assumedly at E3 – we’ll be sure to hit you up.

Rainbow Six Vegas‘ first 2007 map pack left a pretty sour taste in gamers mouths, as the ten dollar offering wasn’t particularly priced as well as they could be, especially when the content consisted of three maps. Still, the game was such a smashing success, folks paid for it, and loved it. Later, Ubisoft threw out a free content pack on Xbox Live Marketplace, and stuck it in the PS3 release, that was meatier and much more satisfying.

A year later, after the success of the pseudo-sequel, Vegas 2 is getting a free content pack that is not just incredibly impressive in content, but is also free of charge.

While the three maps in the pack are all recycled, they’re three of the more popular maps in the series, and with the inclusion of the new High Stakes game-mode-editor, terrorist hunters and renegade rebels have incentive to frolick in the city of sin a little longer. With the ability to disable/enable almost every aspect of the game — from the HUD, to the indicators, all the way to crippling voice chat — Vegas 2 should be almost an entirely new experience, if not just different enough to pull you back in.

We’re appreciative that it’s free, though, that’s for sure.

For the full list and details of the update, check the breakdown after the jump.

Trains in themselves are inherently boring, but add cards and a slow pace of progression to the mix, and we’ve got ourselves one yawn-eriffic sounding game you’d get stuck playing with the family on a Friday night. Somehow, though, Ticket to Ride manages to be an incredibly entertaining port of the tabletop classic, in which players build train routes from one end of the country to another — whether that country is Canada, the United States, or both, depends on specific-route cards drawn by the players at the start of, and continuing through, the game.

By building stacks of the same color card, you’ll find its loads of fun to construct gigantic train routes through the country, as building up the biggest set of points is not just addicting, but highly risky. Any assigned route you do not complete at the end of the game will dock you points, but everything else will launch you closer towards a gigantic score of a victory. Building the longest trail of trams and completing more or all of your assigned construction passageways, makes for some solid entertainment that translates surprisingly well from a board game that sounded like the definition of dull.

Ticket to Ride is great, for sure, but it’s limited. It’s worth its price tag, but it’s guaranteed to be a snooze for the average Halo gamer. There are a variety of card games on Xbox Live Arcade, each of them fun in their own way, but each of them uniquely interesting and fresh to a new crowd.

If you are in the market for a fresh feeling game, or already enjoy playing this with the family, Ticket to Ride is a no brainer. For the rest of the Xbox market, even the appeal of four player Live support and the neglected Xbox Live Vision camera won’t rope them in to playing long in to the evening with granny.

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